Leila Khaled

Leila Khaled (9 April 1944-) was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group who took part in the hijackings of TWA Flight 840 on 29 August 1969 and El Al Flight 219 on 6 September 1970. She is the first female to have hijacked an airplane.

Biography
Leila Khaled was born on 9 April 1944 in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine to parents from Lebanon, and he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement and then the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of which were led by George Habash. On 29 August 1969, she hijacked TWA Flight 840 during its Rome-to-Athens flight in a failed kidnapping attempt on Israeli ambassador to the United States Yitzhak Rabin, the future President of Israel. On 6 September 1970, Khaled and her partner Patrick Arguello hijacked El Al Flight 219 and landed it at Dawson's Field in Egypt, but Israeli skymarshals killed Arguello and arrested Khaled. Turned over to the United Kingdom, she was released in a prisoner exchange on 1 October 1970. Khaled moved to Amman, Jordan, and she became a hero for Palestinian women.